Maruja’s new EP Tir Na Nóg is about twenty minutes long, and that’s fine, as the old cliche goes: “quality over quantity is the best.” The album’s four tracks, titled “Aon,” “Dó,” “Trí,” and “Ceathair,” which are the numbers one through four in the Celtic language. The EP seems purposefully open ended, to allow the listener to find their own cathartic “promised land” in the decidedly spiritual offering. They are particularly known for their thrilling live performances and it illustrates how music transcends language as a form of communication and communion.

One has to wonder how the pieces might maintain the same or different form, in a live performance, as much of the composition seems impromptu. Improvisation is certainly a lynch pin of their music and the whole EP plays as one long song, with different movements. “It’s here where we allow ourselves to become vessels to new ideas that present themselves without thought,” saxophonist Joe Carroll of the band says about the album.

They are garnering attention throughout the world with their punkish, Celtic music, and their cohesion as a group is remarkable. It’s always a treat to see a group of musicians meld together as one, and anyone who has been in a practice room with a band for however many hours can feel the electricity and transcendence that typifies their communal wailing. The world, often designed, whether by design or happenstance, to take the heart and soul out of our existence, is squarely challenged and sublimated by this twenty minute offering.

It comes after their celebrated 2024 EP entitled Connla’s Well, and where their last EP utilizes poetry and lyric, this offering relies on communication beyond words. It is more passionate, more guttural than their last offering, as well, showing them digging deeper into what sound alone can accomplish. The poetic delivery of their last album was one of the highlights of their sound, so it is an interesting choice, but the saxophone on Tír na nÓg is certainly its own highlight, and allows for much more of a personal interpretation of the otherworldly offering. It is another offering in the most passionate of instrumental Celtic influenced music in the vein of Ireland’s Lankum.

Order Tir Na Nóg HERE